Door County gets talked about for cherries, fish boils and lighthouses, and the supper clubs tend to get left off the list. That is a mistake, because the supper clubs Door County has kept going for more than a century run the whole length of the peninsula, from the canal in Sturgeon Bay up to Ellison Bay. They are about 31 miles apart, end to end. Here is every club worth the drive, town by town, plus the dressier rooms for the nights you want white tablecloths instead of wood paneling.
Door County supper clubs, quickly
Door's supper clubs keep the classic Wisconsin format, and the Nightingale in Sturgeon Bay has served it since 1913. You start with an old fashioned at the bar, sit down to a relish tray or salad, and order fish on Friday and prime rib on Saturday.
Six of them stay open through the winter, according to the Door County visitor bureau, when a lot of the peninsula's summer restaurants close. That makes them the backbone of a cold-season weekend up here, and the dining rooms are quieter and easier to book once the leaves are down.
The format is the same one you will find at supper clubs across the state, with a Door County accent: whitefish on the menu, cherry desserts in summer, and a fish fry that locals argue about.
Hours change with the season everywhere on the peninsula. Call ahead between November and April, and do not count on a Monday dinner anywhere north of Sturgeon Bay.
Sturgeon Bay
Sturgeon Bay has three supper clubs: the Nightingale, the Mill with its German menu, and Donny's Glidden Lodge out on the Lake Michigan shore. If you are coming up from Green Bay, this is where the peninsula starts, and it is worth stopping on the way in.
The Nightingale opens at 4 p.m. every night but Sunday and closes at 9 on Thursday to Saturday. Same-day reservations close at 4 p.m., so call the restaurant for a last-minute table. On a summer Saturday, book a day or two ahead.
Under two miles up the road, the Mill, a supper club since 1930, mixes German cooking into the steak menu: schnitzel, sauerbraten and beef rouladen next to the prime rib. Wednesday and Sunday are family-style chicken nights, and the ice cream drinks afterward are enormous.
The Mill takes walk-ins when the other clubs are full, which makes it the backup plan on a busy Friday.
The house dinner at Donny's is the Glidden: a 10-ounce tenderloin with merlot sauce, candied onions and Gorgonzola on toast points. Queen- and king-cut prime rib run on Thursday and Saturday nights. Donny's is now run by the second generation of the Zellner family, and locals make the drive out for it in winter too.
Sturgeon Bay is also where you are closest to the mainland, so a supper club dinner here fits a Green Bay trip. Pairing the supper clubs of Green Bay and De Pere with a night on the peninsula makes an easy two-night loop: one dinner on the bay, one on the peninsula.
Egg Harbor to Fish Creek
Mid-peninsula, the Log Den is a hand-built log lodge south of Egg Harbor, and Fish Creek has three supper-club-style rooms within a few hundred yards of each other.
The Log Den does Sunday brunch and dinner, and the kids' menu has its own name, the Cubbies. Broiled Door County whitefish is the order if you want something local. Egg Harbor itself is small and quiet at night, so give the Log Den its own evening rather than squeezing it between other stops.
In Fish Creek, the English Inn is the one you cannot miss: two life-sized horses ridden by armored knights stand at the entrance, holding torches with real flames. The building started as a lumber mill about a century ago, and the bar and dining room keep the old timber.
The English Inn serves an all-you-can-eat fish fry on Fridays, and the rest of the week runs to beef Wellington, pistachio-crusted halibut and whitefish Oscar. It is open seven nights a week from 4 p.m., which matters on a peninsula where a lot of kitchens close one or two nights. In summer the garden patio has gas fire rings, and there is live music on weekends.
Next door, Alexander's puts a newer, more intimate twist on the format, with broiled Door County whitefish, baked brie, oysters Rockefeller and a roasted cherry duck. It is closed Sundays and Mondays.
Down Spruce Street, Barringer's is the supper-club-style dinner with a dry-aged Delmonico ribeye, duck ragu and Chesapeake Bay crab cakes. It runs higher in price than the classic clubs, and the crab cakes are the reason to pay it.
Sister Bay and Ellison Bay
Up north, Sister Bay Bowl is a supper club, a neighborhood bar and a bowling alley in one building, and it has fed Sister Bay since 1958.
The fish fry runs on Tuesdays and Fridays, and some of the servers have worked there for decades. Off fish nights, the broasted chicken and the pork chop are what the regulars order. Bowl a game before dinner and keep score with a pencil. The Bowl makes a good pizza too, and it is what the kids eat while the adults wait for their perch.
At the top of the peninsula in Ellison Bay, White Pine Supper Club in the Ellison Inn's lounge is the newcomer, a mid-century room with a Nordic-leaning menu of fresh fish and slow-cooked meats. It keeps short hours, open four nights a week from 4 to 8 p.m., so check before you drive up.
A winter supper club weekend in Door County
Winter is when Door County's supper clubs feel the way they were meant to. The summer crowds are gone, the shops in Fish Creek and Sister Bay shut for the season, and the clubs that stay open become the places where the people who live here year-round actually see each other. Tables are easier to get, the bar is friendlier, and nobody is hurrying you out.
The visitor bureau's list of winter regulars includes the Mill in Sturgeon Bay and Donny's Glidden Lodge on the lake, and both keep a fire going in the cold months. Pair a Friday fish fry at one with a Saturday prime rib at the other, and spend the day between on the snowy trails at Peninsula or Whitefish Dunes state park.
Do not assume anything north of Egg Harbor is open in January. A two-minute call is the difference between dinner and a dark parking lot, and the clubs that close for a month or two usually say so on the phone message.
Fish fry, fish boil and how to plan the night
A Door County fish boil and a supper club fish fry are two different traditions, and visitors mix them up all the time. The fish boil is an outdoor show, with whitefish and potatoes cooked in a kettle over a wood fire and a burst of flame at the end to boil off the oils. The supper club fish fry is an indoor dinner of battered or broiled fish with coleslaw, rye bread and potatoes, usually on Friday night.
Do both on the same trip if you can. Book the fish boil for an early summer evening and keep Friday for the supper club.
For any supper club on the peninsula, aim to arrive by 5 p.m. on a Friday or Saturday, and expect a drink at the bar while you wait. Parking is free and easy at nearly every club here, from the lots on Highway 42 to the gravel out front of the Log Den. Bring a sweater even in July, because evenings by the water turn cool.
For a dressier night
When you want white tablecloths and a wine list instead of wood paneling and a relish tray, Door County has a short list of serious rooms, nearly all of them in the same towns as the clubs. Book these further ahead in summer than you would a supper club.
In Sister Bay, CHOP is the white-tablecloth steak and seafood room right next to the Bowl, with a rooftop and an early three-course menu. A little north, Waterfront is the sunset room, and it keeps part of the dining room for walk-ins.
In Fish Creek, CUT cooks its steaks over a wood fire, and Welcker's Lounge across Main Street is a 1920s-style room with live piano, crab cakes and duck. Welcker's has no wheelchair-accessible entrance, so call ahead if that matters.
Pick one supper club and one of these for a two-night stay, and you will have eaten Door County properly. Start at the bar both nights.
Frequently asked questions
Published July 27, 2026
